Software comparison

WorkGuru vs Empower

Compare WorkGuru and Empower for workshop operations: from time tracking, job costing and capacity planning through CRM, purchasing, inventory and financial control.

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At a glance

The short version

Evaluation	WorkGuru	Empower
Platform type	A mature industrial operations platform covering quoting, scheduling, purchasing, stock, timesheets and job costing. Operational and communications data sit together, while the general ledger remains in the accounting system.	A workshop productivity and job-management platform purpose-built for jobbing manufacturers, centred on shop-floor time capture, production scheduling, job costing and manufacturing reporting.
Best fit	Fabrication, engineering, manufacturing and project or workshop businesses where margin is won or lost on labour, materials and rework rather than simply job volume.	Jobbing manufacturers where labour productivity, multi-stage production, work-centre capacity and quoted-versus-actual performance are the dominant management problems.
Pricing model	Published per-user pricing in AUD and GBP, with modules you turn on as you need them, so you can price it before you talk to us.	Quote-led monthly subscription. Empower’s current public pricing page uses a tailored quote/productivity calculator rather than publishing a simple standard price list.
Implementation	DIY, WorkGuru-assisted or partner implementation.	Vendor-supported workshop rollout. Empower currently promotes a sub-seven-day go-live target, support included with the subscription, and optional onsite Lean implementation/consulting.
Strongest when	Broader end-to-end industrial operations management.	Shop-floor labour capture, manufacturing productivity, work-centre scheduling and capacity control are the centre of the problem.

Platform purpose and scope

What each platform is for

WorkGuru

WorkGuru runs the work between winning a job and knowing what it made. Quote it, schedule it, buy for it, book time and materials against it, and see the real cost while the job is still open rather than after invoicing. It is deliberately not an accounting system, a payroll system or a dispatch board — those connect to it.

Empower

Empower is purpose-built around the jobbing-manufacturing floor. Its centre of gravity is capturing real labour against jobs and tasks, comparing quoted versus actual performance, routing work through production stages, scheduling people and work centres, managing capacity and reporting on productivity, rework and margin. Empower also publishes quoting, materials and purchase-order capability, client job-status portals, compliance checklists and accounting/payroll integrations, but it remains primarily a workshop-productivity platform rather than a broad CRM, ERP or field-service suite.

Best-fit use cases

Jobbing manufacturers running varied quoted work through multiple production stages rather than repetitive mass-production lines
Engineering, fabrication, sheet-metal, joinery, cabinet-making, composite, CNC, boat-building, trailer and similar workshops where labour productivity is a major margin driver
Workshops that want staff clocking directly onto jobs and tasks from floor touchscreens, tablets or phones with live quoted-versus-actual visibility
Businesses where work-centre capacity, Gantt scheduling, rework, labour utilisation and production throughput are more important than having a broad native CRM or financial suite

Industries and typical customers

Empower explicitly targets jobbing manufacturers and engineering/workshop businesses, including fabrication, joinery, composites and similar production environments. That makes this a genuine workshop comparison rather than an adjacent field-service comparison.

Feature comparison

Every capability, side by side

Grouped the way the work actually runs. The framework is ours, so read the rows where WorkGuru is partial or not competing first — they will tell you more than the ones where we both say yes.

About this comparison. WorkGuru prepared it. Every verdict below is numbered to the source it came from, and we record only what a vendor publishes — “not found” means we could not find it in their public material on the date shown, not that the product cannot do it.

Software changes constantly. If we have got something wrong about Empower, tell us and we will correct it.

Last reviewed: 21 Aug 2026

Yes published or native
Partial a materially different workflow or scope
Integration available through an integration
Beta not shipped yet
No documented as not supported
Not found not in the vendor’s published product information at the date checked

Capability	WorkGuru	Empower
Sales & CRM
Client Management	Yes¹	Partial²
Contact Management	Yes¹	Not found²
Webforms (website lead capture)	Yes¹	Not found¹⁶
Lead Management	Yes¹	Not found¹⁶
Sales Pipeline	Yes¹	Integration¹⁷³⁵
Quoting & Estimating	Yes¹	Yes³
Quote Templates	Yes¹	Not found³
Quote Management	Yes¹	Yes³
Client Follow-Up	Yes¹	Not found²
AI Client, Lead & Quote Follow-Up	Yes¹	Not found¹⁶
AI Takeoffs	Beta¹	Not found¹⁶
Projects & Jobs
Project Management	Yes⁴	Yes²
Project Templates	Yes⁴	Not found²
Project Kanban Boards	Yes⁴	Partial²
Task Management	Yes⁴	Yes²
Task Kanban Boards	Yes⁴	Not found²
Gantt Chart	Yes⁴	Yes⁵
Project Chat	Yes⁴	Partial²⁸
Project Documents	Yes⁴	Yes²
Variations	Yes⁴	Yes¹¹
Timesheets	Yes⁴	Yes⁶
Recurring / repeat scheduled jobs	Yes²¹	Not found²
Scheduling & Work Planning
Work Areas (bays, machines, departments etc.)	Yes⁷	Yes⁵
Resource Scheduling	Yes⁷	Yes⁵
Task Scheduling	Yes⁷	Yes⁵
ToDo List Scheduling & Management	Yes⁷	Partial⁵
Schedule Changes	Yes⁷	Yes⁵
Mobile App	Yes	Yes⁸³²
Kiosk App	Yes	Yes
Purchasing & Procurement
Purchase Orders	Yes⁹	Yes³⁸
Supplier Management	Yes⁹	Not found⁸
Purchasing Against Projects	Yes⁹	Yes³⁸
RFQs / Supplier Quotes (Beta / Coming Soon)	Beta⁹	Not found⁸
Supplier Quote Comparison (Beta / Coming Soon)	Beta⁹	Not found⁸
Inventory & Stock Control
Stock Control	Yes¹⁰	Partial³³⁵
Product Management	Yes¹⁰	Partial³
Stock Purchasing	Yes¹⁰	Yes⁸
Stock on Projects	Yes¹⁰	Yes⁸
Production Jobs / Internal Assembly	Yes¹⁰	Yes²
Counter Sales / Stock Sales	Yes¹⁰	Not found⁸
Stock Shortages & Par Levels	Yes¹⁰	Partial⁸
Serial Tracking	Yes¹⁰	Not found⁸
Batch Tracking	Yes¹⁰	Yes¹²
FIFO Tracking	Yes¹⁰	Not found⁸
Stock Locations	Yes¹⁰	Not found⁸
Multiple Warehouses	Yes¹⁰	Not found⁸
Stocktakes	Yes¹⁰	Partial³⁸
Bills of Materials (BOM)	Yes²⁴	Yes⁸
Ecommerce channel management	Integration²⁵	Not found¹⁷
Point of Sale	Yes²⁷	Not found⁸
Financial
Job Costing	Yes¹³	Yes¹⁴
Invoicing	Yes¹³	Integration¹⁷³⁶
Progress Invoicing	Yes¹³	Not found¹⁴
Reporting	Yes¹³	Yes¹⁵
Payments	Yes¹³	Not found¹⁷
Online / Embedded Payment Collection	Integration¹³	Not found¹⁷
General ledger & statutory reporting	Integration²⁸	Integration¹⁷
Multi-currency transactions	Yes	Not found¹⁷
Compliance
Forms	Yes¹⁸	Partial⁸¹⁶
Qualifications	Yes¹⁸	Not found¹⁶
Documentation	Yes¹⁸	Yes²
Asset Register	Yes¹⁸	Not found²
Team, Security & Permissions
Team Management	Yes¹⁹	Yes⁶
Roles & Permissions	Yes¹⁹	Not found⁶
Payroll processing	Integration²⁹	Integration¹⁷
Award interpretation	Integration²⁹	Partial⁶
Employee records	Yes³⁰	Partial⁶
HR onboarding & performance	Integration³¹	Partial¹⁵
Automations & AI
Workflows	Yes²⁰	Partial⁸¹⁶
Workflow Templates	Yes²⁰	Not found¹⁶
Workflow Builder	Yes²⁰	Not found¹⁶
User-customisable Automations in System	Yes²⁰	Not found¹⁶
Workflow Notifications & Updates	Yes²⁰	Yes⁸

Every verdict above is numbered to the source it came from. Sources are listed at the <a href=”#sources”>foot of this page</a>.

Commercials

Pricing, rollout and what it really costs

WorkGuru pricing, implementation and ownership

WorkGuru publishes modular pricing and supports three implementation paths: DIY, WorkGuru-assisted onboarding, or partner implementation. That gives smaller buyers a low-friction path while larger or more complex businesses can use structured implementation help without changing platforms.

Empower pricing

Empower describes a monthly subscription and says implementation/support are included, but the public pages reviewed do not present a simple standard price list. Ask Empower for a current quote and compare the complete package, modules and implementation scope against WorkGuru pricing.

Implementation and time to value

Empower strongly promotes implementation support and states that workshops can go live quickly, with its current site advertising a seven-day go-live target. WorkGuru offers DIY, assisted and partner-led implementation depending on business complexity. Compare the actual scope of data migration, process setup and training rather than headline timelines alone.

Total cost and complexity of ownership

Empower can be a focused choice if labour tracking, job costing and scheduling are the main requirements. If the business also needs CRM, purchasing, inventory, invoicing, compliance and automation, compare the cost and administration of the surrounding software stack as well as the core subscription.

Switching

Moving from Empower to WorkGuru

Already using Empower? WorkGuru can scope the transition around the data and processes you actually need to retain. The migration plan should identify customers, jobs, products, suppliers, historical cost information and current work in progress, then determine what can be imported, what should remain as historical reference and what should start cleanly in WorkGuru.

The verdict

The matrix is evidence. This is the buying advice.

Where Empower is stronger

Shop-floor-first labour capture, including biometric facial-recognition clocking, GPS verification, floor touchscreens and live time against individual jobs and tasks
Deep manufacturing scheduling around employees, work centres and production stages, with built-in Gantt views, drag-and-drop planning and real-time capacity charts
Manufacturing-productivity reporting depth, with 200+ reports covering labour utilisation, rework, quoted versus actual time, capacity, throughput and job margin
Strong visibility and accountability directly on the workshop floor through live displays, target times, priority queues and real-time production status
A highly focused implementation model for jobbing manufacturers, including vendor-supported rollout, an advertised sub-seven-day go-live target and a published productivity guarantee

Where WorkGuru is stronger

WorkGuru is the stronger fit when the business wants the operational workflow to start before the workshop: native client management, website lead capture, lead management, sales pipeline, quoting and follow-up in the same platform
Broader documented procurement and stock depth, including supplier management, project purchasing, stock locations, multiple warehouses, serial and FIFO tracking, stocktakes, counter sales and emerging RFQ / supplier-quote workflows
More complete native commercial close-out, with invoicing, progress invoicing and payment collection inside the operating platform rather than relying primarily on the accounting layer
Broader operational compliance and asset workflows, including forms, qualifications, asset management and preventative maintenance rather than primarily workshop QA / H&S checklists
User-configurable workflow automation is substantially broader: workflow templates, a workflow builder, user-defined automations and workflow notifications rather than mainly fixed operational alerts and integration-driven automation
A broader industrial job-management operating model when work spans sales, projects, purchasing, stock, workshop execution, mobile staff, project communication, invoicing and job profitability rather than being centred primarily on shop-floor productivity

Choose Empower if…

Choose Empower if your main operating problem is workshop labour productivity and you want a specialised system for time capture, production scheduling, work-centre capacity and quoted-versus-actual labour performance.

Choose WorkGuru if…

Choose WorkGuru if you want the workshop capability connected to the rest of the operating business: enquiries and quotes, projects, labour, scheduling, purchasing, stock, invoicing, compliance, automation and job profitability in one platform.

The bottom line

Empower is a credible specialist for jobbing workshops and deserves to be evaluated seriously where labour productivity and production scheduling are the centre of the problem. WorkGuru should win when the buyer wants that workshop control as part of a much broader end-to-end operations platform rather than another specialist system in the stack.

Method

How this comparison was prepared

This page was prepared by WorkGuru. Empower product claims are based on publicly available Empower product pages reviewed on 21 August 2026. Every matrix verdict is mapped to a row-level evidence record in the internal appendix. Product information can change; re-check before publication and on the scheduled review cycle.

https://empowersoftware.co.nz/job-management
https://empowersoftware.co.nz/scheduling
https://empowersoftware.co.nz/time-tracking
https://empowersoftware.co.nz/job-costing-software
https://www.empowersoftware.co.nz/our-team/

Checked 3 September 2026. WorkGuru verdicts are preserved from the supplied comparison page. Empower verdicts were re-audited against current first-party product pages, official industry pages, implementation material and integration information.

Scope note: Empower currently has overlapping official product material. Its still-live product/overview pages document optional native Costing & Quoting and Inventory Management / Purchase Orders modules, while its newer WorkGuru comparison describes stock and inventory as integration-led. Where this creates uncertainty, the matrix uses the more conservative verdict and flags the packaging issue for confirmation before publication.

WorkGuru — CRM
Empower — Job Management & Tracking Software for Manufacturing
Empower — Official Overview / Modules — documents additional Inventory Management & Purchase Orders and Costing & Quoting modules
WorkGuru — Project Management
Empower — Production & Manufacturing Scheduling Software
Empower — Manufacturing Time Tracking Software
WorkGuru — Scheduling
Empower — Official Product feature overview — documents purchase orders, BOM-driven purchasing, inventory checking, low-stock reordering, job attachments/comments, mobile support, checklists, alerts and off-site scheduling
WorkGuru — Purchasing
WorkGuru — Inventory & Stock Control
Empower — Official Engineering industry page — documents multi-stage routing, variation costing and ISO / H&S / customer-specific QA workflows
Empower — Official Composite Materials industry page — documents batch-level material traceability, cure-profile tracking and operator sign-offs
WorkGuru — Financial
Empower — Job Costing Software for Manufacturing
Empower — Workshop Reporting & Shop Floor Analytics
Empower — Official Homepage — current platform positioning, compliance/checklists, client portal, mobile access and integrations
Empower — Official Partners & Integrations page — accounting/ERP, CAD/costing, payroll, CRM and inventory/material integrations including Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, Salesforce, SoHo CRM, Cin7 and Unleashed
WorkGuru — Compliance
WorkGuru — Team, Security & Permissions
WorkGuru — Automations
WorkGuru — Project Templates
WorkGuru — Resource Scheduling
WorkGuru — Asset Management
WorkGuru — Production Jobs
WorkGuru — Shopify Integration
WorkGuru — Stock Locations
WorkGuru — Counter Sales
WorkGuru — Xero Integration
WorkGuru — Tanda Integration
WorkGuru — Team Management
WorkGuru — Employment Hero Integration
Empower — Official Learning & Setup page — implementation support, mobile access for off-site staff, workshop hardware and rollout guidance
Empower — Official Pricing & Instant Quote page — tailored quote model, sub-seven-day rollout claim, support and optional onsite Lean implementation
Empower — How It Works
Empower — Official Empower vs WorkGuru comparison — documents CRM / sales pipeline as integration-delivered and describes stock/inventory as integration-led; used to identify the current packaging conflict
Empower — Official 2026 guide, “How Does Job Management Software Work?” — describes Empower’s quote-to-job-to-accounting close-out model

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